At the turn of the century a great deal of effort was directed to developing and establishing a postage meter mailing system. This required approval of each country in which a postage meter mailing system was to be used whereby the post offices within each country would accept a postage indicia as proof of postage payment as was the case with postage stamps. Among the first countries to accept and work with a postage meter system were Norway and New Zealand. Subsequently, the use of postage meters for the purpose of paying for postage became universally accepted.
One of the reasons for the development of the postage meter was to prevent the stealing of stamps. More specifically, individuals working for various mailers would simply take the stamps for their own use. By having a postage meter, the mailer stopped the pilfering of stamps and obtained a faster and more convenient way of processing his mail. With the wide spread use of postage meters came the problem of assuring that a mailer was paying for the postage and for this reason postage meters were built in such a way as to provide a high degree of security. Postage meters are sealed devices that can only be opened by an authorized individual and measures are taken in the design and manufacture of postage meters to assure that the print head can not be "wiped" so as to obtain an unauthorized postage indicia. More specifically, a mail piece cannot be placed in contact with a print head until the printing of postage is accounted for. In addition to provide a high degree of security, when a postage meter was to be charged, i.e., provided funds for the payment of postage, a mailer was required to bring the metering portion of his postage meter machine to a post office. At the post office, the mailer would buy a quantity of postage and the postage meter would be charged that amount by a postal authority. More specifically, the descending register of the postage meter would be increased in value to store the amount of postage a mailer had at his disposal.
More recently with the advent of electronic postage meters, a scheme has been devised whereby a mailer may charge his postage meter remotely. This scheme involves communication over the telephone lines with a central station whereby the mail user would have his postage meter, or descending register, increased in value so that the mailer could process his mail.
Although the postage meter system has worked quite well throughout the years, certain shortcomings have been experienced in the processing of large quantities of mail. Where large quantities of mail are to be sent, a difficulty has arisen in that postage meters are wearing out relatively rapidly. Because of the security involved with the postage meter, they obviously are relatively expensive items and it would be advantageous if one were able to process large quantities of mail without having to be concerned about replacement of postage meters frequently. Furthermore, it would be advantageous to be able to mail large quantities of mail without having to deal with the security measures practiced previously.